Artist's Touch
Artist's Touch (筆致の画伯, Hicchi no Gahaku) is a Fighting Style created and used by Mizuguki. Initially inspired by and his unique ninjutsu, Mizuguki would go on and evolve it into her own format. Based on the principles of creation, alteration, and destruction, it is a form which requires exceptional chakra control, a vivid imagination, and photographic memory harmonized with the senses, three pieces which Mizuguki possesses in spades. The style serves as the main vehicle for her versatility in combat, as well as the key to her dangerousness. Three Pillars They are the three pillars born from Mizuguki's mind, manifestations which freely interact with the world around them for better or for worse. She devised the three categories as a means for further clarification, separating her mechanizations from each other so they can "breathe" and come into their own. Unsurprisingly, each embodies a particular trait she channels when bringing them to life. Creation The easiest of the three to define, the name is self-explanatory. Housed under this pillar are the techniques with which new things are born. The best example are the works she has created around Eigakure. These include the shrine dedicated to a deified Eihei, the construction of a "Focus Realm", home to statues of the first three Eikage, and other grand public works. On a smaller scale, creation is what gives birth to her sculptures, paintings, and written poems, composing the three mediums in ways unseen. It also serves as the basis for new battle techniques, designed to leverage her versatility. The primary drawback, however, is chakra consumption; large scale public works such as those mentioned could only be completed once a day at most, leaving her an invalid for the rest of that time. This is largely due to "original thought"; because she is producing something she has not seen beyond her own mind's eye, it requires far greater input to bring to fruition, the penalty being chakra. Replication isn't around, make your own.]] The second pillar is replication. True to form, it functions as magnificent mimicry to the point of indistinguishableness. The first mode through which she accessed it was the reproduction of existing weapons, especially those of great value. On the lower end of the spectrum, she could take a kunai replicate it a thousand times over, fully outfitting a large attack squad. On the end of tools, she could effectively replicate heirlooms such as the Seven Swords of Kirigakure, providing a viable, if powerful stockpile to strengthen Eigakure's position relative to the Great Shinobi Countries. The same goes for structures; she was responsible for producing a "dummy city" as one means of protecting the real Eigakure from attackers. Perhaps her greatest achievement, however, was replicating people. This serves as a means of bolstering army numbers, and perhaps more crucially, reproducing powerful/skilled/exceptional individuals. This includes her direct superior and just as terrifyingly, herself; replications are fully outfitted with the original's abilities, quirks, tastes, and idiosyncrasies so as to be indistinguishable. Yet therein lies the difficulty; while prodigious amounts of chakra proves the cost of creation, it is chakra control which takes center stage. Replication likes as the intersection of the latter being impeccable, memory that is photographic, and the perfectly attuned senses of an artist. A faltering in any facet, be it loss of focus or something else, leads to flaws which could prove crucial to the trained eyes of adversaries. Hence, while recreating a kunai or a basic sword is as easy as breathing, the introduction of unique attributes makes for a more difficult replication. Innovation Unlike the others, this pillar deals primarily with the existing. While she fancifully coins it as innovation, a more apt term would be alteration. For example, a building that is falling into disrepair could be brushed up by her hand, taking its shoddy pieces and altering them to what they should be, restoring the decrepit structure to its former luster. It also serves as a method to embellish, strengthen, and expand, such as painting lightning into the water so as to make use of the latter's conductive nature. It also houses her own version of transformation, where Mizuguki overlays herself with someone else, altering her form to become them. Nonetheless, this provides context for the collective weakness of this pillar: self. While it is designed to push and in some cases exceed limits, the integrity of the core must be kept. For example, if Mizu were to continue overlaying her existing form with multiple transformations, she not only risks losing her sense of self, but access to her abilities, leaving her trapped in whatever multitude of forms she had taken. Ignoble Pillar Destruction